In 1709 (or was it 1710?) the Statute of Anne created the first purpose-built copyright law. This blog, founded just 300 short and unextended years later, is dedicated to all things copyright, warts and all. To contact the 1709 Blog, email Eleonora at eleonorarosati[at]gmail.com

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Bollywood
has reacted with horror to the new Indian Copyright
(Amendment) Bill, 2012, which seeks to protect owners of literary and musical
works and which has been passed by the Rajya Sabha (543-0) and will be
presented to the Lok Sabha before it becomes law, much to the delight of
singers, script writers, lyricists and composers. But some music and film companies
feel that it is "extremely unfair".

The new
Act is said to be “empowering the creative sector” and strengthens the
royalty claims of artistes, song and script writers, musicians and addresses
newer issues related to the digital world and the Internet. The legislation
was approved by the Rajya Sabha on May 17th and law provides that authors are
the owners of the copyright for their creative work and that this right
cannot be assigned to producers, as has been common the practice.

The Act
also makes it mandatory for broadcasters from both the radio and television
industry to pay royalty to the owners of copyright each time a work of art is
broadcast. The law also bans cover versions of literary, dramatic or musical
work for five years from the first recording of the original creation.

Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal, who had moved the bill in
Lok Sabha, noted that artistes who came from poor background were often left to fend
for themselves, as film and record producers cornered all royalties that came from the work,
be it stories or scripts or songs. He said the legislation was to help the
artistes achieve a decent living even in old age, continuing to receive their
dues for the work done during their prime. Giving examples of Shehnai
exponent Bismillah Khan and music composer Ravi, the minister pointed out
that the financial position of such outstanding artistes was "pitiable" and they
were unable to even pay their housing and medical costs, after long and successful
careers. The Leader of the Opposition, Sushma Swaraj, also supported the bill and
said it was long overdue. Swaraj said that film producers had lobbied her to oppose the bill but she decided to
support it when well-known director and music composer Vishal Bhardwaj said
the amendments were for the good of lyricists.

The bill also seeks to bring the Indian Copyright Act 1957 in conformity
with "international norms" and "World Intellectual Property Organisation
guidelines".

The President of the Association
of Radio Operators for India Anurradha Prasad said the radio industry will “now
survive” saying “I am extremely overjoyed for the industry and the creative
professionals. I would also like to say that it is a win-win situation for
everyone from the industry. It is just like that if you kill the chicken the
egg will stop coming". "The music industry should also be happy with the bill,”
she told Radioandmusic.com.

Sony
Music Entertainment India and Middle-East president Shridhar Subramaniam
stated: “This amendment is an extremely positive move and we are very
supportive of this bill. This was long awaited and we believe this will help
the overall artiste development and align us with global practices. We now
need to wait for the law to be signed by the president and then begin the
process of interpreting and implementing the new developments in a broad and
consensual manner to develop healthy new practices. The only thing that we
are disappointed with is not much has been done about the piracy issue that
we all are struggling with and also the issue of statutory licenses for
broadcasters."

But many in the
movie industry, who have benefitted from acquiring control and ownership of scripts, songs and
recordings in the past, were less than happy. Adarsh Gupta, business head of
Saregama company, said the proposed legislation spells disaster saying "It
is extremely unfair to the film and music industry. It will turn out to be a
real issue in times to come. I don't think there will be any creative
compromises. There will be a lot of litigation on this issue. The entire
equation will need to be re-assessed from start to finish".

The new royalty
division is reported as 50 percent for music label; 25 percent for producer
and 25 percent to be split between the lyricist and the composer. Currently,
100 percent goes to the music label which can, as I understand it, also be a film company, although I am not clear on the definition of 'producer' at the time of posting this blog.

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